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Haile Selassie (1892-1976)Ethiopian emperor. Born on 23 July 1892, in Harar, the great-nephew of Emperor Menelik II, he was baptised Ras [Prince] Tafari Makonnen as a Coptic Christian. Immensely precocious, he was effective governor of one of the country's richest provinces at the age of 16. When his aunt Waizeru Zewditu became empress of Ethiopia in 1916, he became her regent and effective ruler of the country. He managed to control the various oppositional factions and carried on Menelik's reforms, which included the setting up of missionary schools. Keen to make sure that his country was recognised as a modern state, he led Ethiopia into the League of Nations in 1923. In 1928, he was crowned king, and – on his aunt's death in 1930 – became the emperor Haile Selassie. A reformer and moderniser, he was forced into exile in London and Bath when Mussolini's troops invaded and occupied his country in 1936. He was restored in 1941, when Italy suffered defeats in north Africa during World War II. After the war, Haile Selassie received massive aid from the Western nations, which enabled him to build schools, hospitals and an army. He played an important role in the Organisation for African Unity and on the international stage, but many of his reforms were compromised by war with Eritrean independence fighters and Ethiopian ethnic groups. After a devastating drought in 1973, the effects of which were exaggerated by inefficient government organisation, he was deposed on 13 September 1974 by left-wing army officers. Two years later, on 27 August, he was murdered while under house arrest. Despite his mixed success as a ruler, Haile Selassie became an international icon of the Rastafarian religion, which believes that he was the Messiah, the incarnation of God. His image was particularly popularised by reggae singers such as the Jamaican Bob Marley. |
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